{"id":17631,"date":"2025-07-21T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17631"},"modified":"2025-07-18T11:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:09:06","slug":"shut-down-yarls-wood-14-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17631","title":{"rendered":"Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – Yarl’s Wood immigration prison, near Bedford<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Shut<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The protest outside Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre on Saturday 14th July 2018 was the fourteenth on the remote site built on a wartime air base organised by Movement for Justice, although I had been covering protests in and around London calling for the closure of this and the other immigrant prisons for over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Antonia of Movement for Justice tells people what is happening. We are waiting for a final coach<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’d been at most of the previous thirteen at the site, although I had missed the first, largely because of transport problems – living outside London it wasn’t practical for me to travel on one of the coaches organised from London. In July 2018 I came with my bike on the train to Bedford and then cycled the 5 hilly miles to the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The march starts along the road<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This protest was the smallest of them all I had attended there, with only a little over a hundred protesters. Many of those present had themselves been held for some time in this or other detention centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And then along a public footpath<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yarl’s Wood was being used to hold women and a few families, and previous protests had been widely supported by other groups including many feminist groups, who on this occasion stayed away. Later some other groups organised protests but on a smaller scale than the previous protests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and through a gate into the field next to the detention centre<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A woman who had been part of Movement for Justice and active in earlier protests here had left the group, complaining bitterly about the way the group had treated her. She had received widespread support including from some other former members leading to many boycotting this protest. I knew both her and others in MfJ and commented: “However justified her personal complaint, it revealed little if anything about the group that was not already public knowledge, and MfJ has played a major role in protests against our racist immigration detention system, and still seems to be supported by the former detainees<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where they stand and greet the women held inside over the fence<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can read about that public knowlege of MfJ<\/a> on Wikipedia and on the complaints on the “Speak The Plain Truth<\/a>” blog. I was saddened by the dispute but more so at the effect it had in weakening this and related campaigns – and I had never had any illusions about the nature of the organisation which I had first met in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A woman looks out at the protesters who were obviously welcomed<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The protest followed the usual pattern, meeting on the public highway and, after a rally there marching a mile or so along a public footpath to a field next to the prison and overlooking a part of the site across a 20 foot high metal fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Others hold messages in the windows which only open a narrow slit<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lower 10ft of the fence is solid metal sheeting but the upper 10ft is a thick metal gauze (out of focus in the picture above.) Standing back on a slope I could see women held inside greeting the protesters. Guards inside had apparently tried to keep them away from the windows – even enticing them to another part of the building with offers of free ice-cream!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They could hear the protest and know that there were people outside who supported them, and some inside were able to speak to us over a mobile phone link. Some of those who spoke outside were able to greet friends still inside – some are held for long periods, with one released a day under three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mabel had spent 3 years inside and knew many of those still held there<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most asylum seekers are genuine and are eventually released, but the Home Office has long appeared to have a policy of putting as many hurdles as possible in their way, often demanding records that are impossible for the detainees to provide – a similar tactic to that used in the Windrush scandal. Many were deported under illegal “fast-track” procedures – and MfJ has also managed to take legal action along with others to stop some individuals being deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Between speeches many banged on the fence to make a great deal of noise<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of our legal system is based on the principle that people are innocent until they are tried and proven guilty. But our asylum system works in the opposite way, assuming claims are fraudulent and demanding that asylum seekers prove they are genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was hot in the sun and I got tired. The protest was still continuing as I got on my bike to ride back to Bedford station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More pictures from Saturday 14th July 2018 at Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – Yarl’s Wood immigration prison, near Bedford The protest outside Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre on Saturday 14th July 2018 was the fourteenth on the remote site built on a wartime air base organised by Movement for Justice, although I had been covering protests in and around London calling for … Continue reading Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – 2018<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[6033,21271,21274,1929,7470,8322,7168,21272,5386,14551,7297,5104,21270,244,13216,2972,15751,1528,83,16,21273,2970],"class_list":["post-17631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-20ft-fence","tag-3-years","tag-accusations","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-bedford","tag-cult","tag-detention-centre","tag-dispute","tag-end-immigration-detention","tag-immigration-detention-centre","tag-immigration-prison","tag-indefinite-detention","tag-mabel","tag-march","tag-metal-fence","tag-mfj","tag-mobile-phones","tag-movement-for-justice","tag-peter-marshall","tag-protest","tag-trotyskist","tag-yarls-wood"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17634,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17631\/revisions\/17634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}